Tony Burke defends $57,000 US spending spree over four days as being within ‘the rules’ of Department

Employment Relations Minister Tony Burke is defending his exorbitant US travel expenses as being within “the rules” of the Department as he faces questions over the $57,000 four-day taxpayer spending spree. The Labor MP spent more than $44,000 on business class flights when he and a staffer travelled to Washington for the 30th Australian American Leadership Dialogue in 2022, according to The Daily Telegraph. Almost $8000 more was spent on car hires, about $4,000 on accommodation and food and $1066 on priority passports. Defence Minister Richard Marles was also part of the delegation — and took two staff members — but Mr Burke forked out twice as much. “The process once a trip has been determined goes very specifically in a normal way where the fees and everything are organised by the Department according to the rules,” Mr Burke said on Wednesday. “It then gets reported according to the rules and then gets published according to the rules.” Mr Burke said it was “an important trip in the national interest” as he and Mr Marles met with US officials on AUKUS. “The article (on Wednesday) has not referred to the meetings that were held at the White House. It hasn’t referred to the meetings that were held with the AUKUS caucus, which goes across the aisle,” he said. “My decision when I spoke to the Prime Minister was to make sure that both the Defence Minister and myself as leader of the House were there and that that was the right thing to do.” The expenditure of ministers has come under the spotlight in recent months as thousands of Australian households struggle with cost-of-living pressures. Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley criticised the Albanese Government for the high international travel expenses. “I think if this Government cares about the cost-of-living, I think if this Albanese Government actually understood the people in communities that are doing it tough, they might just curb some of their own spending,” Ms Ley said. “(They need to) demonstrate by their own actions that they do get it when it comes to the cost-of-living crisis.” It was revealed in December that Mr Burke’s parliamentary expenses were $398,000 between July and September of 2022, which was the second highest amount spent behind Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on $684,000. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton ranked third after spending $363,000, followed by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek at $326,000, and Resources Minister Madeleine King at $319,000. The data was released from the Parliamentary Expenses Authority.

Tony Burke defends $57,000 US spending spree over four days as being within ‘the rules’ of Department

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